TECH TALK TUESDAY – levitating amphibians batman!

Some folks think they have seen it all, but science presses ahead! Think of it… just 100 years ago we were riding horses and trains, now we can ride electrons! The magic of levitation is coming soon to a frog near you!

British and Dutch scientists have succeeded in floating a frog in air — using a magnetic field a million times stronger than that of the Earth. And, they say, there is no reason why larger creatures, even humans, shouldn’t perform the same gravity-defying feat.

Scientists at the University of Nottingham and the University of Nijmegen in the Netherlands have both made a frog float in mid-air. The levitation trick works because giant magnetic fields slightly distort the orbits of electrons in the frog’s atoms. The resulting electric current generates a magnetic field in the opposite direction to that of the magnet. A field of 16 teslas created an attractive force strong enough to make the frog float – until it made its escape.

“If the magnetic field pushes the frog away with sufficient force you will overcome gravity and the frog will float,” says Peter Main, one of the researchers.

The team has also levitated plants, grasshoppers and fish. “If you had a magnet that is big enough, you could levitate a human!” He adds that the frog did not seem to suffer any ill effects. “It went back to its fellow frogs looking perfectly happy.”